We continued our study of the Design Thinking Process with many different activities this week. We used our collaboration and evaluative thinking skills to decide on a final design and assign tasks to complete our Tile Design Project. It was challenging to use our time wisely to finish this project to our high standards. We'll be evaluating our work efforts and finished product next week.

Algebraic Thinking:We divided into groups based on our formative assessments last week. Several students have fully mastered the algebraic skills through Lesson 14, which is FANTASTIC! Others have the basic concepts, but have to work on applying these to word problems. Our two new students are zooming ahead and will be making quick process through Hands On Equations Level 1!

Stations:We challenged our convergent thinking skills with a more difficult logic puzzle, stumping quite a few! We also worked on figural analogies, which were easier for most. Next, we viewed an video about Empathy and created a Padlet about the topic. We also worked more on our Character Descriptions and analyzing the author's use of humor in our novel.

InVenture:Aside from finishing up our Tile Design Challenge, we worked quite a bit on Empathy, an important part of the Design Thinking Process. We viewed a book called, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. This is the story of a 14 year old boy in an African village, who built a windmill to pump water and generate electricity for his family and neighbors. His actions saved the village from starving during a severe drought and famine. We also watched a Ted Talk featuring this young man, as a 19 year old describing what he did. The kids found him to be VERY inspirational! We discussed how he used empathy to identify and create a useful solution to the problem in his village. We also discussed the character traits that helped him achieve something SO amazing!Check out some photos below of our learning today:

We got our day off to a great start! The kids came right in and got to work on their first assignment. Almost all finished it right away. Stations:We stretched our convergent thinking skills with a logic puzzle-no grid this time! We also used Edmodo to watch a movie about "The Engineering Process" and created a Padlet. Check out their responses here.Finally, we used Edmodo to view a ThingLink about the setting our novel.​InVenture Challenge:We used so many of our skills to get started on a practice Design Challenge: "Tile Design". The kids collaborated to define a problem to solve, decide on possible constraints of their task, brainstorm possible design ideas, evaluate ideas, and decide on a final design. We will create our final Tile Designs next week (working on card stock, not actual tiles). Check out their great work below:

Algebraic Thinking:​We had three groups working on Hands On Equations at their own levels. Some were finishing up our Assessment, others had moved on to a review of Lesson 14, and our two new guys were moving ahead to Lesson 2 using our Hands On Equations app. The HOE app is a great way to practice these skills at home. Returning students would be working on HOE Level 2, and soon HOE Level 3.

Novel Study:We learned about idioms today. This is a great way to make connections between real life and reading, while exploring the various ways language can communicate our ideas.

HW: Edmodo: "What were the best and worst parts of the Tile Design Project today, and why?"

We got right to work this morning with our Stations. We worked a review logic puzzle to brush off those convergent thinking skills. Everyone did pretty well on that! Then we used our divergent thinking skills to create a Tagxedo about ourselves for our Target folders. Finally, we used our critical thinking skills to evaluate after viewing an introductory video on engineering, as part of our InVenture Challenge. Here's a link to the Padlet with the kids' responses.

Next we reviewed Hands-On-Equations a bit before taking a formative assessment of our algebraic thinking skills. This will help us form groups to work on Algebra next week. Our new folks started Hands-On-Equations with Lesson 1. They did great!

We use our problem-solving and collaboration skills by playing a wonderful game I learned at a "Guru Celebration" last Spring. I call it the "Money Game". Ask your child about it. I think they had a good time and learned a bit about collaboration and decision-making.

Later, we practiced our mindfulness skills with a short lesson about Calming Down the Amygdala. This video is a little goofy, but it gets the point across and the kids love it.

We also worked some more on our InVenture unit with a vocabulary game called "I Have...Who Has?". It was more of a challenge than the kids thought it would be. They learned about terms like: Design Thinking, Design Process, Engineering, Reverse Engineering, Prototyping, Ideation, Interview, Define, Analyze, Testing, and Empathy. Later in the day we talked about the difference between Thick and Thin questions to help us get ready for asking questions to begin our Invention Projects. Check out the photos of the game:

Finally, we learned about what the Nobel Prize is and read a bit more of our novel, The Fourteenth Goldfish. We're finding out more about Ellie and her grandfather, who has changed into a 13 year old boy. Crazy stuff!

We had a great first day of Target! It was jam packed with activities to help us get back in the saddle!

We got our notebooks set up, starting with some basics like our Class Rules and Procedures. Then we talked about our Class Norms. This was an interesting conversation. It seems that the kids know how they should act in Target, and carry through with it most of the time. I was a bit surprised that they ALL said "Doing your best" or some version of that was the most important. Hmm...I want to see that one put into action starting next week. A few of them consistently do their best work, but some just do the minimum to get by. I hope we can turn that around with some exciting units and books this year!

We worked together to develop our collaboration and problem solving skills while we solved the "Cup Stack Challenge". Check out the fun below:

Novel Study:We started our new book for the semester, The Fourteenth Goldfish. It's a wonderful story about a middle schooler discovering her love of science and learning what's important in her family. There's also a mystery, so that's super fun! Check out the Author Interview with Jennifer Holm.We don't have copies of this book for the kids. It is available on Amazon for $7.99 in hardback and Kindle editions and also used for a bit less. I'm sure Barnes & Noble carries it too. It may be available in the school library also.

​Unit Study: InVenture ChallengeWe kicked off our new unit with a great video about "Famous Failures". Then we talked about inventions and the quote, "Necessity is the mother of invention." The kids are already excited about this unit and are thinking of ideas for possible inventions. Look for more information coming soon, after I attend the InVenture Challenge training at Georgia Tech on August 26th. I can't wait to see what these amazing kids come up with for inventions!

Affective:We refreshed our mindfulness practice with an old favorite, "4-7-8 Breathing". Check it out and maybe try it yourself after a long day at work!